Abstract
Released in April 2016, the Guidance to the application of UNI ISO 26000 assists organizations in contributing to sustainable development and encourages them to go beyond legal compliance, promoting a common understanding in the field of social responsibility. Yet companies may find difficulties in practical implementation because they are at various stages of understanding and integrating social responsibility into their processes. Moreover, they have to understand how to complement ISO 26000 with other existing standards, tools and initiatives for social responsibility. Trying to contribute to the quest for additional insights on ISO 26000 implementation, this work aims to provide a critical analysis of the applicability and the appropriateness of ISO 26000 in the context of an Italian cooperative, named Camst, which represents one of the largest catering service firms in Italy. The case study analysis indicates that an experienced user like Camst can benefit from the introduction of ISO 26000, whose adoption has led to an improvement in existing practices and a greater integration of social responsibility into the organisation. The work provides both scientific and managerial implications. On the one hand, it contributes to further reflections on the effectiveness of ISO 26000. On the other hand, it suggests how organisations can maximise the benefits of ISO 26000 implementation.
Please note that this paper represents the work of a common research project. However, Del Baldo Mara wrote Sects. 2.1, 4 and 5 while Aureli Selena wrote Sects. 1, 2.2, 3 and 6.
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Notes
- 1.
ISO is a network with a membership of 163 national standards bodies. ISO’s expertise is in developing harmonised international agreements based on double levels of consensus among the principal categories of stakeholders and among countries.
- 2.
As indicated by the ISO guidelines (ISO 26000:2010: 20), the thematic reflection on the nature of organisational governance is at the centre of the process that companies should undertake to recognise their SR because an effective organisational governance enables an organisation to take action on the other core subjects of SR.
- 3.
The mission is intended as a synthesis of a company’s aims; the governance as the system of government and power of an organisation and the accountability is conceived as the company’s responsibility to take into account and give account to stakeholders for all activities and choices.
- 4.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Paola Bertocchi and Ivano Minarelli from Camst as well as Claudia Strasserra, Sustainability Sector manager from Bureau Veritas Italia, for their valuable collaboration, sensitivity and support in providing us with the material necessary to develop the case study analysis. Moreover, we would like to thank the important suggestions provided by the reviewers.
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Del Baldo, M., Aureli, S. (2019). Anticipating and Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility Within ISO 26000 Implementation: The Experience of Camst Cooperative (Italy). In: Idowu, S.O., Sitnikov, C., Moratis, L. (eds) ISO 26000 - A Standardized View on Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92651-3_8
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